Top 4 Most Listened To Headwaters Podcast Episodes Of All Time

You listened and so did we. Here are the top four most listened to episodes of the Headwaters Podcast of all time. The Headwaters is produced by Kootenay Mountain Culture Productions, in partnership with the Columbia Basin Trust. Initially launched in May 2022, the podcast has released 41 episodes to date, receiving a 5.0-star rating on Spotify, 4.8 on Apple Podcasts, and beaming reviews from its fast-growing listenership.

The Headwaters has been downloaded over 54,000 times to date, putting it in the top 20% of all podcasts. Be sure to check out headwaterspodcast.com, ourtrust.org, kootenaymountainculture.com and their associated social-media channels for more information. And if you haven’t already, listen to our recently launched Bonus “Best Of” Episode for a look back at our favorite stories from our first three seasons.

#4 MOST POPULAR EPISODE

In Episode #3 called Doukhobor Lore, we dive into one of Canada’s greatest unsolved mysteries. A 1924 train bombing killed Peter Verigin and eight others on the Kettle Valley rail line between Grand Forks and Castlegar. The crime is still unsolved.

We recount the tale with Verigin’s grandson, at the Verigin Memorial Park, perched on the lower slope of Sentinel Mountain in Castlegar overlooking the Kootenay River and the historic Brilliant Suspension Bridge. The site is a place of reverence and reflection, with a granite tomb marking the final resting place of Doukhobor leader Peter Verigin. Verigin was the influential leader of the Doukhobors in Canada, a spiritual Christian group originating in Russia known for their pacifism, communal living, and agrarian traditions. They were forced to leave Russia due to religious persecution and many eventually settled in the West Kootenay region. But their communal views clashed with the Canadian government’s push for assimilation and private land ownership. These tensions ran deep and may have led to Verigin’s mysterious death, what is often cited as the first act of terrorism in Canada.

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#3 MOST POPULAR EPISODE

The third most popular Headwaters Podcast episode of all time comes from our second season, Episode #23 – Ghost Towns. It appears our audience has an affinity for history! We visit such iconic locations as Sandon where silver was discovered in 1891. By 1900 it boasted 5,000 residents and a booming economy until silver prices started to fall and a few decades later it was all but deserted.

We also visit the famed Fort Steele Heritage Town in the East Kootenay and learn about the Columbia Basin’s oldest ghost town, which was located nearby. Fisherville was the first town settled by non-natives when gold was discovered close to what’s now Cranbrook In 1864. A year later the easily accessible seams had dried up and it was abandoned.

Other topics include the Zincton mine site in the Slocan Valley and the proposed ski resort there as well as a conversation with author and historian Keith Powell.

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#2 MOST POPULAR EPISODE

Did you know the American bullfrog eats fish, birds, mice, and other frogs? In our very first episode Saving Species, we go hunting for these invasive, voraciously hungry amphibians on the American border where they’re encroaching into the Columbia Basin and gobbling up endangered Northern Leopard frogs. Find out how local conversationists kill dozens of bullfrogs in one night.

We also report about saving the Southern Mountain caribou, restoring the Columbia River salmon numbers, and we visit Canada’s only taxidermy school in Castlegar.

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#1 MOST POPULAR EPISODE

During the past four seasons of The Headwaters, all 40 episodes, one particular podcast rose above all the rest. Episode #30, the first episode of our third season, called Staying Alive, features survivalist and YouTube personality Greg Ovens from Canal Flats, Alan Tenta of Invermere, a school teacher who won the 10th season of the TV show “Alone,” and Sherah Martin-Pretty and Marshall Ezelle from Kimberley’s Search and Rescue.

The podcast also features Fernie’s Wilf Lloyd and his harrowing account of surviving a grizzly bear attack.

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